


Written in the Stars

by NEStar



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2019-06-20 17:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15539424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NEStar/pseuds/NEStar
Summary: A soulmate mark story.





	1. Chapter 1

Jack was five the first time he really thought about the marks. Some of the other kids in his kindergarten had them and some didn’t but it wasn’t until the morning when Bobby Johnson came running into the room yelling, “I got my mark last night! I got my mark!” that he looked at his own wrist and wondered when his mark would come.

 

By the time Jack was in fifth grade he was the only one in his class without a mark - oh, there were a few other kids in the school who didn’t have marks, but not many.

 

Within the first three weeks of high school everyone knew Jack, he was “that kid who doesn’t have a mark”. He could feel eyes watching him as he walked through the halls, caught his science partner staring at his wrist, found a tabloid article taped to his locker about a women with no mark who went on a robbery spree. That weekend Jack asked his Mother to buy him a watch (with a really big face).

 

* * *

 

At the end of his sophomore year the school held a career day with guest speakers coming in to talk about a bunch of different jobs that Jack found utterly boring; that is, up ‘til the moment when the projector screen light up with the recruitment video from the Air Force. The way the plane came out of the clouds with everything glowing around it - it caught his excitement in a way nothing (except Charlotte Marshall's mini skirt) else ever had. 

 

After all the presentation were done and the auditorium was dismissed, Jack made a beeline to the table where the Air Force office was standing. He practically skidded to a stop in front of the table, then opened his mouth… but that’s as far as he got. After a few seconds the officer gave him a big smile, “Got the flying bug, eh?” and he held out a pamphlet with the words “Air Force Academy” printed across the top.

 

As he did, the cuff of his jacket rode up and Jack could see a bare wrist peeking out. “You don’t have a…” Jack shut his mouth quickly, you  _ never _ talked about someone’s mark (not to their face). The officer took Jack’s blunder in stride, “About one-third of the armed forces are unmarked. The brass actually consider it an advantage because you can give your whole devotion to your fellow soldiers, when you head out on a mission there’s nothing to distract you.”

 

Jack took the pamphlet, “Awesome.”

 

* * *

 

When Jack was 17, the summer after high school and three weeks before reporting to the Academy in Colorado, he felt a stinging on his wrist. At first he didn’t pay attention to it, just figured it was a bug bite, but the stinging didn’t go away and he thought maybe he’d cut himself on something in the old mower he was working on and… well, he should probably wash the cut.

 

After two minutes of vigorous washing with a good deal of soap the stinging - and the black spot he had thought was grease - was still there.

 

An hour later the stinging was gone and the black spot had resolved into a name, “Sam”.

 

* * *

 

 

He had screwed up, had tried to laugh in the face of destiny or fate or something but it had laughed back.

He looked down at his wrist, at the letters that stained the skin: Sam. Jack could trace all of his failures back to the moment that word had finally shown up. Before that he had come to terms with the idea of not having a soul mate, of giving everything he was to the Air Force. Then “Sam” appeared and flipped his life upside down. 

 

Sure, soul mates didn’t mean romantic love, and so what if it was a guys name on his wrist? It’s not like you had a choice in the matter. But the idea that fate had teased him for so long? Jack couldn’t think of anyone he knew that had an age gap this big; he’d even gone to the library over at UCCS back when he was a cadet and asked the librarian if there was any studies. She told him the average age gap was 5-10 years with only extreme outliers after 13 years.

 

So one night, finally back stateside after a bitch of a mission, a 36 year old extreme outlier walked into a bar and meet a 31 year old woman whose soul mate had died in a car crash.

 

Nine months later Charlie was born.

 

And now, after just eight short years, Charlie was dead.

 

Sure it was his gun; but more than that, it was Jack himself who had killed Charlie. Killed Charlie by defying the name on his wrist.

 

Maybe that’s where he should put the first cut, right through the word “Sam”. Tear it in two just like it had torn his life.

 

A pounding on his door startled Jack from his thoughts. If he just waited until whoever was at the door left… But the pounding just continued.

 

“Jack O’Neill, we know that you’re home.This is Major Paul Davis, I’m ordering you to open this door.”

 

Jack flung open the door, “Number one, you can’t order me to do anything, I’m retired. Number two, even if I wasn’t, I would outrank you.”

 

Major Davis held out a large envelope, “By order of General West, you are hereby recalled to active duty and are ordered to report to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex immediately. If you don’t come of your own volition I have two members of the Security Forces waiting in the car who will bring you by force.”

 

* * *

 

Jack was spread out on the couch, just on the edge of falling asleep, when a pounding on his door startled him upright and opening the door before he was fully awake.

 

“Colonel,” Major Davis stood on porch.

 

“Oh no,” Jack said, taking half a step back, “We did that before, once was more than enough.”

 

“By order of General Hammond, you are hereby recalled to active duty and are ordered to report to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex immediately.” Davis held out a large envelope. “Whatever you did on the first trip managed to piss off someone, so now it’s time to fix it.”

 

\--

 

Jack walked into the briefing room, the crisp collar of his dress shirt tugging at his throat. Through the large window he could see the embarkation room and the Stargate it contained. As nice as it would be to discover what Jackson had been up to in the last year, Jack was not looking forward to stepping through the gate again.

 

The sound of a door closing and the quick shuffle of feet around him had Jack quick turning away from the window, hand drawn up in a salute before he’d even seen Gen. Hammond.

 

“Where’s Captain Carter?” 

 

Jack took a quick glance at the men settling into chairs all around the table, “Carter?”

 

“I’m assigning Sam Carter to this mission.”

 

A shudder ran up Jack’s spine and down his left arm before ending as a tingle in his wrist. Ah, crap. Of all the moments for fate finally say, “Here ya go.”

 

“Carter’s our expert on the Stargate.”   
  
Crap. Well, let’s see what the universe had in store for him.

 

“Where’s he transferring from?”

 

“ _ She _ is transferring from the Pentagon.”

 

Jack’s head whipped up as his mind tried desperately to understand what he was seeing. 

 

“Cap. Samantha Carter, reporting for duty, sir.”

 

He returned the salute as he fought to keep his breathing steady. Blond hair, bright blue eyes, just enough sass to make her point known while still keeping in the bounds of addressing a superior officer… It was like someone had gone through every fantasy he’d ever had and picked the best parts to make her.

 

“Let’s get started.”

 

Hammond’s command shook him out of his daze. Right, the mission. 

 

Before he could even finish his opening thought there she was, breaking in with a comment about the research she’d done on the reports from the first mission. Next to him Kawalsky and Ferretti started playing “trip up the scientist” but Kawalsky’s combat scenario was turned aside and Ferretti’s comment only opened the door for Carter to start in on a lecture about molecules.

 

“General, please?” He implored, knowing he’d lost control of the moment and kicking himself for it. “A scientist?”

 

And there she was, “Theoretical Astrophysicists.”

 

“Which means what?” 

 

“Which means she’s smarter than you.” 

 

The tingling in his wrist was getting stronger, causing his fingers to itch. Jack sat down, needed to put some distance between them.

 

“Look, this isn’t a problem with you being a woman - I like women.” Crap, why had he said that? “I have a problem with you being a scientist.”

 

“I logged over a hundred hours in the air during the Gulf War; that tough enough for you… or are we gonna have to arm wrestle?”

 

A smile slowly crept over his face. Yeah, the universe or fate or whatever was definitely laughing at him.


	2. Chapter 2

From the moment she was born Samantha Carter had a name on her wrist. It wasn’t unusual, about half the population was born with a name; after all, when you put any two people together one of them is going to be older and one will be younger.

 

But there was still wonder behind it. “Jack”, that was it. Plan. Simple. But with so much possibility. Every time a friend would say, “This is Jack.”, her heart would skip a beat. Whenever she moved to a new school, the first time she heard roll call asking for “Jack”, she had to force herself not to whip her head around to find the face that belonged to the voice saying, “Here.”   
  
It made her skin hum sometimes, knowing that her Jack was out there, waiting for her.

 

* * *

 

By the time she was 25 she had learned to put a tight damper on her excitement. Why had she ever trusted him, she’d never underst -- Well, she had trusted him because he had the name Samantha on his wrist and he told her that everyone called him Jack.

 

It was six months into their relationship that she discovered the small box of custom temporary tattoos… with the word “Samantha” on it.

 

That night she found out that his real name was Jonas. He had given her a great story, all about the loneliness he faced as a man without a mark; how he had decided to find love on his own; how he had picked her because she was the smartest women - with the most brilliant smile - he had ever met.

 

The only part of the story that Sam believed was that she was smart; smart enough to pack up her belongings, along with her broken heart, and move in with Janet, a med student she had met during training.

While her heart eventually healed, Sam’s sense of excitement died. After all, there were just too many Jack’s in the world and she would meet her real one when the time was right.

 

* * *

 

God, what had gotten into her? Yes, it was always a good idea to put on a tough show the first time at a  posting but that… There was something about this new colonel made her skin hum in a way that had her on edge. Stepping to the side of the hall, Sam opened up the packet she had brought with her from the briefing room.

 

Colonel Jonathan J. O'Neill.

 

J.

 

No. It couldn’t be. The J could stand for anything, it didn’t mean that this cocky, handsome, arrogant, man was a Jack. It definitely didn’t mean he was her Jack.

 

* * *

 

She was cold and dizzy and about to heave all over the steps of a Stargate on a different planet. Before she had a chance to get a second look at her lunch the sound of a gun cocking had her standing upright with her own gun at the ready.

 

“Lower your weapons, it’s all right.”

 

She kept her gun where it was, waiting for a command from the Colonel.

 

“Hi, Jack.”

 

The words echoed in her brain. So he was a Jack. That still didn’t mean he was her Jack.

 

* * *

 

She was deep into rewriting the command codes for the self destruct when Daniel wandered into the control room. 

 

“I figured you might need this,” he said and held out a cup of coffee and an apple.

 

“Thanks.” 

 

“Well, I know what helps me avoid sleep,” he said with a small shrug, “I took a chance that it would work for you too.”

 

Maybe it was the fact that the control room was deserted, maybe it was everything they had been through over the last few days, whatever the cause Sam finally came to the point where she just had to know, “Hey Daniel?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Why do you call the Colonel, Jack?”

 

“Because it’s his name?”

 

“His name is Jonathan. It’s on all the reports.”

 

Daniel started to laugh, “Jonathan?! I’m sorry but can you really see him as a Jonathan?” 

 

“I meet him barely two weeks ago, and since we got back from Chulak I’ve been elbows deep in the dialing system, so I don’t really see him as anything besides “sir”.”


End file.
